The increasing automation of weather information places a greater burden on the flight crew to obtain and interpret weather information pertinent to an ownship flight path. The Next Generation (NextGen) overhaul of the United States airspace system and the companion Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) overhaul of the European airspace system creates various trajectory-based mechanisms to improve air traffic management on these continents.
In addition, electronic flight bag (EFB) solutions, which include electronic display systems for the flight deck or cabin crew member use, are gaining in popularity. For example, EFB devices can display a variety of aviation data or perform basic calculations (e.g., performance data, fuel calculations, etc.). In the past, some of these functions had to be manually entered using paper references or were based on data provided to the flight crew by an airline's flight dispatch function. Hence, EFB solutions when displayed add to burdens of interpreting displayed information placed on flight crews.
In response to potential information display overloads, the avionics display systems deployed aboard an ownship has been extensively engineered to visually convey a considerable amount of flight information in an intuitive and readily comprehendible manner. In conventional avionics display systems, the majority of the information visually expressed on a display, such as a primary flight display, pertains to the host ownship's flight parameters (e.g., the heading, drift, roll, and pitch of the host ownship), nearby geographical features (e.g., mountain peaks, runways, etc.), and current weather conditions (e.g., developing storm cells) but fall short of displaying relevant objects and conditions graphically from the VSD on the LMAP display. The use of graphic conditional data on the VSD would make it much easier and faster to visualize a current situation awareness by the pilot when viewed on the LMAP display.
In view of the above described trend toward air crew-centric traffic management, it is desirable to provide an avionics' display system and method for visually expressing additional flight characteristics pertaining to external conditions and objects of an ownship flight path. These flight characteristics may include enhanced awareness of objects and conditions other than traffic in the vicinity of an ownship and displayed on an LMAP display and derived from the VSD where such conditions and objects are superimposed on the LMAP display and viewed with a greater range and visibility than on the VSD.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide one or more alternatives to the required use and displays interfaces that facilitate these options by displaying appropriate interactions with ownship onboard avionics and applications. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.